


best friend?

by hyuckios



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: AND SWEET, Kissing, M/M, built up tension, but confident, mark swoons over donghyuck's thighs, short and (heatedly) sweet?, sick mark is annoying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-31
Updated: 2019-05-31
Packaged: 2020-03-30 21:32:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19035985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyuckios/pseuds/hyuckios
Summary: mark lee can't stand being sick,but having a best friend like lee donghyuck (with pretty legs)might make him feel a little bit better.





	best friend?

**Author's Note:**

> this is nonsense.   
> not edited. lol.

Mark hates the sweat that beads on his forehead, and especially when he’s already suffering from a fever. Standing in the practice room is almost like laying in the middle of an ice bath naked, and Mark groans at the temperature circling around his body, but he ignores it. His mind tells him to continue to practice, and his members, too. 

He feels a little too sick as he slumps onto the couch once they’ve come to a stopping point.

“We’re gonna grab ice cream, care to join?” Jaehyun slides his hand to Mark’s lower back, rubbing in gentle circles. 

Mark softens his eyes at the touch, knowing that if anyone could tell beyond Mark’s first wall, it’s Jaehyun. 

But Mark only shakes his head, threading his fingers through his hair before placing the beanie back over the mess, his glasses crooked on the bridge of his nose. Jaehyun leans into his ear and tells him to head back to his room to rest, but Mark’s stubborn and won’t leave that room until he’s perfected each and every part of the choreography.

The door opens and shuts about a hundred times, each time echoing in Mark’s pounding head. He thinks everyone has left, but he hears more shuffling from where they throw their bags. He has no energy to check, because the couch he’s laying on is warm and his eyes are beginning to get heavier, but he hopes the person will just leave.

“Hey, you don’t seem too well.” Donghyuck’s voice streams into Mark’s ears, and for a moment he thinks that it’s the only sound that doesn’t bring a louder pound to his head. 

But, Mark is only up for giving a grunt as his response. Donghyuck chuckles at that, already making his way to the couch. 

He sits next to Mark’s head that’s facing up toward the ceiling. He lays a hand over Mark’s forehead and hisses, instantly tugging the beanie off and tossing it to the side, removing Mark’s glasses, too. He doesn’t throw those… he folds them up and sets them on the table. Mark huffs again. 

Donghyuck tips his water bottle over Mark’s face, spluttering water over his cheeks. 

“Hey!” Mark whines.

Mark finally cracks an eye open to see Donghyuck staring down at him with a raised eyebrow. 

“You’re burning up! You need to cool down.” 

“I’m freezing though, Donghyuck!” Mark sits up and runs his sleeves over his face, wiping the dripping water from his cheeks. 

Donghyuck whispers to himself, already squatting down in front of the couch. 

“Hop on.” He says it with a little attitude, and Mark can’t even find the effort to tell him off for it. 

Instead, he leans forward and wraps his arm around his best friend’s neck, wrapping his legs around his waist as Donghyuck stands back up. 

“Where’s your stuff?” Donghyuck speaks up as soon as Mark rests his cheek on the top of the boy’s head. So, Mark only presses his knee to Donghyuck’s hip. 

“Dude, what does that mean? Speak up.” Donghyuck’s words are shorter, and Mark worries that his patience is already growing short, too. So, he sucks it up and points toward the bags. 

Mark doesn’t blame him actually, he’s pretty annoying when he doesn’t feel well. He does everything in his power to avoid getting sick, but once he does… the entire world will shut down. It’s funny how almost every ounce of water will piss Mark Lee off when he’s sick. 

The only thing that doesn’t piss him off as much as others?

Lee Donghyuck.

Life has always been quite the journey for Mark, and he’s honored to have experienced every piece of it so far. But, Mark gets tired, too. He admires his daily life, the people involved, and the success he’s built himself up to, but sometimes the poor guy really needs those few days to heal. 

He’d prefer if he had a few days off.. days where he could just wake up when he wanted to, go out for his favorite treats, lay in bed and just watch a few good movies. Oh, yeah.. he’d prefer that over feeling like he’s just crawled through Hell and back—on his knees.

But Donghyuck keeps him grounded majority of the time, reminding Mark to take his own breaks, reminding him to loosen up a little. It’s refreshing to have someone else who cares about him more than he does himself. 

“Okay, It’ll be right to bed for you, buddy.” Donghyuck grabs ahold of Mark’s hamstrings and jumps, lifting the older a little higher onto his back. It makes Mark’s bones rattle and ache deep down. 

God, Mark hates fevers. 

“It’s funny how a body temperature can do so much shit to you.” Mark’s tongue almost feels swollen when he says it, further proving his goddamn point. “You know?” 

There’s only a gentle chuckle that passes Donghyuck’s lips, but Mark accepts the answer. He doesn’t need anything else. 

Mark doesn’t care how sick he is, he will not let Donghyuck carry him up three flights of stairs. That’s ridiculous. Instead, he leans up against the boy as they climb up with too many complaints from Donghyuck, because, “I can carry you!” 

It feels like heaven when they reach Mark’s room. Mainly for Mark, who kicking off his shoes and plopping right onto his memory foam mattress, loving the way his body sinks right into it. 

“Shouldn’t you shower first?” Donghyuck scratches the back of his head as he peeks his head around the corner, leaning up on the doorframe. 

“Shouldn’t you fuck off?” Mark snaps at him, but Donghyuck doesn’t take it to heart. 

He can’t even count the number of times he’s dealt with an exhausted and snappy Mark Lee. Lucky for him, he knows exactly how to beat around the shitty attitude. 

“Yeah, I guess so. See ya.” 

Donghyuck barely makes it two feet before he hears the familiar whine. 

“No, no. Wait.” Mark whispers it, and it’s familiar.. Donghyuck knows it’s familiar, he’s heard Mark say it a thousand times before. So why on earth does it feel so goddamn different when he tells him to, “Stay.”

Donghyuck clamps his teeth together and stands with his back toward his best friend, not ever wanting to turn back to him and face his demons. But he comes to realize that the tension in his head (and his heart) all relates back to Mark Lee. 

“Stay?” Donghyuck repeats once, already on his bullshit about taunting the older. 

Mark slides deeper into his pillows, his small body almost disappearing between them. He feels as though there’s a hundred different people rubbing ice cubes all over his body. It’s uncomfortable, and honestly… a shower is the absolute last thing Mark wants to happen.

“Yeah.” Mark answers him, holding his hands out in a grabby motion. “Hurry the fuck up.” 

Donghyuck laughs at that. He really thought for a second that Mark Lee was gonna be sweet, but he had to pull the most Mark Lee thing on earth. It’s not unwanted, though. Donghyuck admires the smallest details about his best friend. Like how every long sleeve shirt he owns has the ends nearly chewed off. It’s almost worrisome, and Donghyuck gets sick of seeing the threads from the fabric across every floor in their building. 

Mark, also for some reason, really likes his cookies burnt to a crisp. 

That one Donghyuck gets to make fun of him for. He always tells Mark that he might as well scrape the burnt crumbs from the bottom of the oven, and eat those instead. 

“You’re acting like a dick. I don’t want to stay.” Donghyuck is half serious, because he really just wants to make it back to his room, shower, and hide away on his computer until the early hours of the morning. But he’s also half joking, eager to hear Mark ask him to stay once more. 

Mark huffs and flips onto his stomach, mumbling a string of words. 

“Dude. I can’t hear you!” Donghyuck sighs with pure annoyance and Mark turns his head to look at Donghyuck, his head hitting the pillow again. 

“I said stop doing that!” Mark slides his right arm from under the blankets and points toward the floor. 

Donghyuck, oblivious to the way he’s hiking up his own shorts, blinks. 

“Your legs… they’re so pretty, Hyuck.”

He then looks down to his legs, raising an eyebrow, his eyes meeting his hands that are graciously playing with the bottom of his shorts. It’s then when Donghyuck doubles over from the pain of the butterflies suddenly blooming in his stomach. 

No, he doesn’t even think he can call them butterflies, since they feel more like knives with Mark’s name on them. 

“Oh.”

He’s unaware that there’s a blush tingling in his cheeks, too. 

“Okay, I’ll let you go, see you soon.” Mark lays onto his side, bringing his fuzzy blanket up to meet his chin, biting on his bottom lip as he glares over at his best friend. 

Donghyuck stays put, his hands unclenching, the ends of his shorts dropping back to their regular position. He knows he’s sweating, and so is Mark, but the older is frozen from his fever. There’s a short grunt that falls off Donghyuck’s mouth, and it’s a sound that Mark doesn’t think he’s ever heard before. 

“You can’t just tell me that my legs are pretty and then kick me out!” He whines it this time, adding some sort of nervous chuckle, since he’s not too sure how Mark will take it. 

But Mark is one smart son of a bitch, and he’s probably a little more confident when he’s sick. Because soon, Donghyuck sucks in a breath from the gaze that Mark gives him. 

“Well, what else should I do?”

“Invite me into your bed.” 

The confidence burst runs out, and Donghyuck feels paralyzed in time. He wants to compare himself to his best friend, but Mark seems to be blushing now, too. 

Their eyes scan over each other’s, looking for some sort of answer. There’s one that is bound to show up, right? Because Donghyuck has no desire to ever say another word to Mark Lee, and especially after saying that. Mark, however, looks like he’s on some sort of high, and soon he lifts his hand to point at the end of his bed. 

Donghyuck swallows hard, already looking for God to rescue him from this situation. They’re just messing around. They’re just best friends.

None of it matters though, because Donghyuck already picks his feet up and crawls toward Mark from the end of the bed, until he sits criss crossed in front of Mark. There’s a deep darkness down in Mark’s eyes, and Donghyuck feels selfish for thinking it has something to do with him, instead of the sickness he’s suffering from. 

“Have you taken anything?” Donghyuck tries to say out loud, but the words get caught in his throat, and he flushes over the crack in his voice. “Like.. for the pain.”

Mark blinks once and focuses on his surroundings, as if he’s just snapped back to reality. 

“No, but I need to.” He brings both hands to his forehead, pushing pressure points at his temples, and then toward the back of his skull. “My head feels like it’s gonna blow off.”

Donghyuck’s instincts kick in and he goes to stand up, but Mark latches on to his wrist. There’s the sweetest giggle that comes from Donghyuck, and he voices his thoughts.

“You better not tell me that you’ll be fine as long as you have me.” He raises an eyebrow and Mark instantly looks down, trying to defend himself. “You can be weird and sweet in the kitchen, but I need to get some medicine in you, dude.” 

Sitting in the kitchen, Donghyuck decides to heat up a can of soup for Mark, giving him a little substance that he can have before he downs a couple pills that will hopefully relieve his pain and drop his fever. Mark sits on the countertop and keeps complaining about just wanting to fall asleep for the next few days. Donghyuck doesn’t say anything to it.. he just wants to feed the sick kid before getting him comfortable between his sheets. 

“Donghyuck!” Mark whines, and Donghyuck almost scolds him for being so impatient, but when he turns around he notices the shyness in Mark’s persona. “Are you doing this on purpose?” 

Donghyuck looks down once more and breaks out into a laugh. 

“I’m really not. These shorts are itchy.” He answers truthfully, and he doesn’t want to admit that he’s also got a couple mosquito bites on his upper thighs, even though Mark told him to wear bug spray when he went on his run last night. (He didn’t.)

“Take them off, then.” Mark says it so fluidly, but Donghyuck’s knees literally go weak, and they slam into the counter underneath the stove. “Wait, like… I meant… I mean… You can wear some of my sweats if you want to.”

The air in the kitchen feels so fucking thick, and Donghyuck isn’t sure what to do about the feeling pooling in his stomach. All he knows is that Mark is bold when he’s half asleep and not feeling well. And he absolutely loves it. He loves the way his best friend makes him feel. 

“But then you won’t be able to see my pretty legs.” Donghyuck pokes his tongue out and Mark glares at him. 

“You’re damn right. But you’re stubborn and itchy, and I just want you to feel comfortable.” 

Donghyuck clenches his jaw as he turns the stove to off, reaching up into the cupboard to find Mark’s favorite glass bowl. The bowl that Donghyuck bought him as a crack gift on his 16th birthday.

“I’m supposed to be taking care of you, Mark. Not the other way around.” 

Mark shrugs and pokes his bottom lip out, already hopping off the counter to find a spoon for himself. He loves the way Donghyuck claps his hands together when he pours the soup into the bowl and slides it over to Mark. It’s the simplest thing. All Donghyuck did was heat up a can of soup, but Mark will act excited because Donghyuck is proud of himself. 

And he never wants Donghyuck to feel less than that. 

The younger walks around until he sits on the stool next to Mark, admiring and waiting for Mark’s reaction. Of course, Mark loves it. (He’d say he loved it even if he didn’t.)

“It’s good. Want to try?” Mark holds his spoon toward Donghyuck, spilling the liquid across the countertop and already dragging an annoyed glare from the younger. Donghyuck gets up to find a rag, swearing under his breath about how careless Mark is. 

“No, just eat it carefully. Don’t burn yourself.” 

Donghyuck pulls his phone out, laying his cheek on the countertop while he plays some sort of game with too many ads. He yawns once, and Mark almost tries to stick a cracker in his best friend’s mouth, but Donghyuck swears at him and flicks his ear. He doesn’t care if Mark is sick or not, he’s always gonna flick the boy’s ear. 

“Donghyuck.”

“Shut up and eat.” 

“Donghyuck.” Mark says it again, the clanking of his spoon echoing inside the small kitchen, and quite frankly annoying the hell out of the boy next to him. 

Mark huffs and continues to shovel the soup into his mouth, turning the spoon upside down to get every last drop of it. He craves for more, especially since it makes his body feel the tiniest bit warmer. Although, he knows that Donghyuck could soak his body in the desired warmth, too.

When he finishes, he places his bowl in the sink and drags his socked feet back toward the bedroom. 

“Shower!” Donghyuck calls from the stool he’s sitting on, and Mark only lifts his middle finger up, his back still turned to him. “You can flip me off, but you still need to shower!” 

Mark, with one big fucking groan, obeys.

Donghyuck rinses out Mark’s bowl and ends up washing it, drying it, and placing it back in the spot he had retrieved it from. It’s a special bowl. Donghyuck has to make sure Mark takes good care of it. He presses the palms of his hands on the edge of the countertop, and the mess starts to appear in his eyes. Donghyuck thinks he must’ve not realized how torn up Mark’s kitchen actually was. 

“Fucking messy kid.” Donghyuck snags his phone and slides it into his shorts pocket, nearly pouncing onto the couch in the living room. He wraps his hand around the velvet blanket hanging off the back, and slides it around his body. 

Another thing Donghyuck admires about his best friend was that the guy had such a thing for soft blankets. His room was nearly swarming with hundreds of them. Each holiday, all their members would get Mark a new blanket, and he’d love it each time. 

Donghyuck rests his head, his own body beginning to ache from the practicing they had just completed. He tilts his head and sighs, already on his way back to the kitchen. 

“I hate you, Mark Lee.” 

He cleans up the mess. 

When he finishes, he doesn’t seem to recognize that Mark has made his way to the couch, his body tiny as ever wrapped inside a baby blue blanket. Donghyuck’s eyes soften at his figure, and he picks out the medicine for Mark to take, making Mark sit up on the edge of the couch. He stands in front of him and raises an eyebrow, waiting for the boy to take the medicine already. 

“You cleaned my kitchen.” Mark whispers, his eyes scanning over Donghyuck’s features, trying really hard not to look a little lower at the tanned skin just a few inches from his face. 

Donghyuck shrugs, rolling his eyes when Mark just holds the pills in his hand. The older throws them to the back of his throat, downing them with the water cup in Donghyuck’s hand. 

“Yeah, you sure as hell weren’t gonna do it.”

Donghyuck expects a sarcastic response, but he doesn’t get anything. Not a smirk, not a shitty course of swearing, just really intent eyes spearing down to the center of his own. Donghyuck swallows, looking down at Mark, unable to project any sort of emotion, because Mark is just staring at him. 

They try to read each other, but Donghyuck only receives an unclear vision through Mark’s eyes. 

It’s a careful touch, but Mark reaches both hands up and curves his fingers at Donghyuck’s waistline, holding onto his t-shirt before pulling him a little closer. 

Donghyuck’s breath gets caught in his throat, but he follows the pull. 

“Sit.” Donghyuck stands on each side of Mark’s knees, and he wants to sit, but his heart screams in confusion. “Please.”

God, Donghyuck doesn’t think he’s ever sat down so fast. 

Mark’s eyebrows lift, the pain written in them somehow wiped away. He pulls his bottom lip into his mouth and bites down, not daring to look down at Donghyuck’s lips. Instead, he sets both of his hands atop of Donghyuck’s thighs, sliding his fingers just under the fabric. 

Their eyes are bullets in each others, and Mark can’t rip away anytime soon. 

There’s tingling on the top of Donghyuck’s legs, and it feels incredible. His best friend is touching him so sweetly and Donghyuck thinks that he’ll melt if Mark continues to do it any longer. 

It’s funny how their heavy breathing becomes background noise, even though it’s a little too loud since both of the nerves in their bodies are coming out to say hello. Mark swipes his thumb across Donghyuck’s thigh, and suddenly the younger feels the familiar burst in his stomach. 

The butterflies. The knives with Mark’s name on them. 

“I want to kiss you, Donghyuck.”

Donghyuck’s body is on the verge of disappearing into thin air, because of Mark’s words, and Mark’s hands, and Mark in general. 

Mark’s hand leaves Donghyuck’s thigh, reaching up to hold the back of the his neck, guiding his head back down until their eyes meet. Donghyuck knows his cheeks are burning, but Mark’s are doing the same, and there’s quite the burning sensation between their skin touching each other. 

The sun is just beginning to set, and it glows through the windows, bouncing off Donghyuck’s cheeks. Mark sees the honey skin up close, and his stomach boils with comfort. 

Donghyuck is beautiful. 

“You’re really sick.” Donghyuck brings up the elephant in the room, but Mark doesn’t have it. 

“Okay? You’re really hot.” 

Donghyuck brings his hand to Mark’s mouth, squeezing his cheeks together until Mark looks like a fish. The younger scrunches up his nose and scans over the features on Mark’s face. 

He looks toward his hair that is combed carefully, still dripping water on the ends toward the back of his head. He looks toward his eyelashes, perfectly placed on his eyes, carrying character. He looks toward Mark’s ears (he pinches one, too.) And finally, he looks down at Mark’s lips. 

Wow, Donghyuck doesn’t even think he can put into words how he feels about Mark’s lips. 

For years, he’s thought about them in such different ways. 

Sure, Mark has kissed Donghyuck’s forehead and his cheeks, and the younger has always swooned over the softness of them. But, he’s always wanted to taste them. To have them in such a different way.

“Dude, kiss me then.” 

Donghyuck expects Mark to move suddenly, to connect their lips in a lustful desire, to share bites together. But Mark only touches the back of his hand to Donghyuck’s cheek, his thumb swiping across the boy’s bottom lip. He presses a little, letting Donghyuck’s lip snap back into place.

Their hearts pound together, and neither of them know what the hell they’re doing. 

“Is this okay?” Mark whispers. 

Donghyuck, in a hurry, nods his head. 

“No, Donghyuck. I need you to tell me.”

Donghyuck feels his heart soften up, and he thinks he can call the feeling in his stomach butterflies this time. They feel a bit softer. 

He cups Mark’s cheeks and feels them burn underneath his fingertips. He feels selfish for thinking it, but he wishes that Mark wasn’t sick during what could be their first kiss… because Donghyuck wants to be able to feel Mark’s blush under his hands, not the boy’s fever. 

“This is okay. We’re okay.” Donghyuck nods, and goosebumps crawl over his skin. Mark’s too. 

Donghyuck takes the first move too, and leans his head down. 

Mark closes his eyes, his heart feeling as though it’s about to fly away from the pace that it’s beating at. He wants to tell it to shut up, because Donghyuck is about to bring their mouths together in a kiss, and he really needs to be alive for that moment. 

But, Donghyuck doesn’t kiss him. 

Mark, however, does feel a sensation against his neck, and unknowingly, he swears. 

“Oh fuck.” Donghyuck’s lips vibrate on Mark’s neck from the laughter spewing off of his mouth. Mark’s hands squeeze tighter on Donghyuck’s thighs, and that shuts him up. It coaxes a little whine from his mouth, too, but he presses his tongue right up against Mark’s warm skin to ignore the sounds desperate to leave his own mouth.

He tastes like coconut body wash, and although it’s a little soapy, Donghyuck wouldn’t trade the taste for anything else. Mark tilts his head back, giving Donghyuck more of a canvas to paint. 

Donghyuck drags his tongue over to a new spot, and sucks a little hard for the first time. Mark’s hands are tight on Donghyuck’s thighs, but it all stings and feels too fucking good. 

“You’re so beautiful.” Mark’s voice comes out unsteady, his hands shaky. 

“I know.” Donghyuck pulls his lips away to say.

Mark twists his body until he can look into Donghyuck’s eyes, raising an eyebrow. Donghyuck gives him a goofy grin and moves back to kiss his neck. 

“As are you, Mark.”

It’s such a new feeling for Mark, and if neck kissing is this good, then he’s not too sure if he can handle regular kissing. 

Donghyuck sucks right underneath Mark’s jaw, making the older dig his nails right above Donghyuck’s knees. 

“Fuck.” Mark whispers, motivating Donghyuck to pull at the skin, suck a little harder, and drag his tongue a little further.

His own stomach swirls with desire, just from hearing how good he’s making Mark feel. 

Donghyuck eventually pulls away, and presses a soft kiss to the bright red bruise right under Mark’s jaw. 

“That one is pretty.” Donghyuck pushes his thumb into his mouth and then wipes it on the bruise that he’s created. 

Mark nearly yanks Donghyuck back up, until their foreheads are touching. 

Donghyuck stares at his best friend, teasing him by scraping his nails against the back of Mark’s scalp. The older lets his eyes roll to the back of his head. 

“You’re already making my pain go away.” Mark realizes, and Donghyuck gets a little shy seeing how bold Mark was becoming.

“It’s the pain medicine, you dork.”

Donghyuck was positive that Mark’s cheeks were as dark as they could get, but he’s met with a surprise when they turn into a darker shade of red. Mark lifts up Donghyuck’s shirt and rubs his thumb right on his hip, waiting for the boy to tense from the touch. It doesn’t take long, either, because anything Mark does will cause Donghyuck to melt in his touch. 

“Will you please kiss me now?” Donghyuck whispers. 

Mark nods, blinking too fast as a shy smile grows onto his cheeks. It’s sweet, and Donghyuck returns the shy grin. 

“You do know that I will probably get you sick from this, right?”

Donghyuck knows he should care. He’ll care, later. Because all he wants in that moment (and forever) is his best friend. 

“So do it already, Mark Lee.”


End file.
